202 THE UPPER YUKON 



by which an ascent could be made, but 

 we went as far as it was possible for human 

 beings to go. Before us was a yawning chasm 

 and back of that a sheer wall, and on the peak 

 of that was his eminence, the goat. A pecu- 

 liar sharp ridge ran across the edge of the 

 chasm, and on this we stopped until we could 

 breathe freely. The ridge was made up of 

 small stones and loose soil. It would not bear 

 our weight without straddling it, and as the 

 goat was directly above me, and still in the 

 sun, I could not see him at all without the 

 glasses. Lying partly on my left side with 

 one leg hanging over the ridge, I located him 

 as well as I could with the glasses and pre- 

 pared to shoot. It was guess work at the best, 

 and when the shot was fired the bullet went 

 at least a foot to the right of him, and in a 

 second, as it seemed to us, he disappeared over 

 the crest. 



Nothing was to be done now but to get 

 down to the bottom again, which we did with 

 all the celerity at our command. While we 

 had been up the mountain, our pack train had 

 passed by the place where Charley and Billie 

 were tethered, and as the ground was so very 

 treacherous the Chief was anxious to catch up 

 to them. We mounted, and away we went on 



